Stage 1 Proposal: Table Accessibility

Folks, 

I brought up this item back in February/March, but I think there was an oversight in formally making it a Stage 1 Proposal. We have discussed this in several meetings already. I know we already have a lot on our plate for 1.3, but I think this is important enough for consideration.

Table Accessibility

Proposal for addressing table accessibility in DITA 1.3:

table model for DITA (and associated schemas):

1. Add rowheader to the colspec element. Indicates whether or not the entries in the respective column

should be considered row headers.

Content model:

 ## Indicates whether or not the entries in the first column should be considered row headers.

 attribute rowheader {
 ## Indicates that entries in the first column of the table are functionally row headers

(analogous to the way that a thead provides column headers).

Applies when rowheader is used as a table attribute.

"firstcol" |

 ## Indicates that entries of a column described via colspec are functionally row headers

(for cases with more than one column of row headers).

Applies when rowheader is used as a colspec attribute.

"headers" |

## Indicates that entries in the first column have no special significance with respect to

column headers.

"norowheader" |

"-dita-use-conref-target"

  }?,

colspec.attributes =

  attribute colnum { xsd:NMTOKEN }?,

  attribute colname { xsd:NMTOKEN }?,

  attribute colwidth { text }?,

  attribute colsep { yesorno }?,

  attribute rowsep { yesorno }?,

  attribute align {

    "left"

    | "right"

    | "center"

    | "justify"

    | "char"

    | "-dita-use-conref-target"

  }?,

  attribute rowheader?,

  attribute char { text }?,

  attribute charoff { xsd:NMTOKEN }?,

  tbl.colspec.att,

  dita.colspec.attributes

2. Allow scope attribute on entry. The scope attribute can contain one of "row" or "col" or "rowgroup" or

"colgroup".

Content model:

dita.entry.attributes =

  id-atts,

  localization-atts,

  attribute rev { text }?,

  attribute outputclass { text }?,

## Specifies the scope of a header.

  attribute scope {

## Applies to the row

"row"

|

## Applies to the column

"col"

|

## Applies to the row group

"rowgroup"

|

## Applies to the column group

"colgroup"

}

3. Allow headers attribute on entry. Identifies one or more entry elements that apply to its entry. The

headers attribute contains an unordered set of unique space-separated tokens, each of which is an ID

reference.

Example content markup:

<thead>

<row>

<entry></entry>

<entry xml:id="date1">12/12/2005</entry>

<entry xml:id="date2">12/19/2005</entry>

<entry xml:id="date3">12/26/2005</entry>

</row>

</thead>

<tbody>

<row>

<entry xml:id="prog">Prognosis</entry>

<entry headers="date1 prog">8,000</entry>

<entry headers="date2 prog">7,000</entry>

<entry headers="date3 prog">6,000</entry>

</row>

<row>

<entry xml:id="act">Actual</entry>

<entry headers="date1 act">11,123.45</entry>

<entry headers="date2 act">11,012.34</entry>

<entry headers="date3 act">10,987.64</entry>

</row>

</tbody>

Content model:

dita.entry.attributes =
  id-atts,
  localization-atts,
  attribute rev { text }?,
  attribute outputclass { text }?,

## Specifies the scope of a header.

  attribute scope {

## Applies to the row

"row"

|

## Applies to the column

"col"

|

## Applies to the row group

"rowgroup"

|

## Applies to the column group

"colgroup"

}

 ## Specifies the entry or entries which serve as headers for this element.

attribute headers { xsd:IDREFS }

4. Since there is no @summary in CALS, the table's summary should be allowed in a caption. Ensure that

caption is allowed within table.

Content model:

tbl.caption {paracon*}

tbl.table.mdl = tbl.table-titles.mdl, tbl.table-main.mdl, tbl.caption?

Thanks and best regards,

--Scott
Scott Hudson   |   PELCO  by Schneider Electric   |   United States  |   Standards Lead 
Phone: +1 970 282 1952  |  Mobile: +1 720 369 2433  | Email:  |   Site: pdn.pelco.com